STAR WARS: DAWN OF THE TRUE SITH
by DhuryamDhuryam
Summary: 141 ABY: STAR WARS: DAWN OF THE TRUE SITH-Ever since a Sith ritual made him immortal, Lord Scourge (from the Old Republic: Revan) has been dead inside. But all that will change when he takes a beautiful former Nightsister, Xelina Djo, as his apprentice. They will track down the remaining members of the One Sith, and start a new order.
1. Chapter 1

**Typhon: 141 ABY**

The stones continued to fall. Continued to make their ripples on the surface of the Force. The ripples began to intersect, the points of their intersection spawning their own series of ripples. Some of these disturbances were echoes from future events, so significant that they could be felt in the present. There were also present events whose ripples vanished into the horizon of a distant and uncertain future. The surface of the Force became like a spider's web of cause and effect. The Force was moving, as it had not moved for many ages.

The Red Man had slumbered in his tomb on the world of Typhon for over two millennia, his mind searching through space and time. And now the Force called to him.

A pair of burning red eyes snapped open. Stared into darkness. Into oblivion. As did the entire Sith Order, the Red Man reflected. Their leader, Darth Krayt, had recently met his end, leaving the Sith without leadership. Leaving the Sith in desperation.

Perhaps, in their desperation, they would listen to the Red Man's words. The light side of the Force was not something to be shunned. It could be used alongside the dark, so long as one did not allow the light to blind them. The Red Man doubted Darth Krayt would have accepted such words. _He'd surely have labeled me a heretic!_

The lid of a metal sarcophagus proceeded to rattle. It soared into the air on a blast of Force energy and, seconds later, clattered onto the stone floor. The Red Man's body, still for so many years, cracked and creaked as he stood up and stepped out from his coffin.

Now fully conscious, the Red Man reached out in the Force. No longer just a passive presence, the dark side of the Force fell upon him. And he nested himself in its suffocating haze. He reached out further, across a vast chasm, to the light side of the Force. For Sith should take hold of all the power offered by the Force.

The Red Man's gaze left his body, to travel across space and time. He saw wars and death.

 **Dathomir**

Xelina Djo was a blur as she ran through the forest, pursued by seven women who had once been her sisters. The far too perceptive Xintara had sensed her using the dark side of the Force. Xelina had tried to explain that the dark side could be used for good, and that it was foolish not to make full use of the gifts offered by the Force. But the overly rigid-minded Xintara would have none of it. Xelina had felt the she-rancor summon their six sisters, and knew that she had been betrayed. She knew she could not best Xintara in combat, at least not in the setting of the village. And even if she could, there was no way she'd be able to take down her other sisters. And so Xelina had fled into the forest, where she could take advantage of...

The base of Xelina's brain stem began to tingle. She rolled to the ground, allowing a spinning, green bladed lightsaber to pass just millimeters over head. Xelina returned to her feet to find a disturbingly calm Xintara racing toward her, and recalling the lightsaber to her hand.

Xelina's own lightsaber was suddenly in her hand, its white blade _snap-hissing_ to life, just in time to block a vicious blow. The blows continued to rain down as Xintara sought to back Xelina into a fatal bottleneck. Though she could not sense her sisters, since they were concealing themselves in the Force, Xelina knew they would be there. Waiting to murder one of their own.

Xelina fought to hold her ground, and let a sense of stubborn determination bleed into the Force. But it was all for show, to disguise her true intent. A fist-sized stone, made smooth by years in a shallow riverbed, lifted into the air behind Xintara. And then it sailed forward, slamming into the back of Xintara's neck with a sickening _crack_. Her dead body thumped to the ground.

Xelina wanted to cry over her sister's corpse. Though Xintara had tried to murder her, Xelina still loved her. And though slaying her sister had been purely an act of self defense, she still hated herself for it. But there was no time to mourn. Xelina could feel the rage of her former sisters as a corporeal thing. A beast that would compel them to tear her apart.

Xelina fed more dark emotions than she had the time to count into the Force, and its dark side fed its raw power into her. She ran deeper into the forest. She could feel the others gaining on her, surrounding her, in an ever tightening, suffocating net. From which Xelina knew she would never escape. The others began to appear out of the lush green foliage, lightsabers humming hatefully. She looked at her own weapon's blade. If she was going to die, then it would be on her terms. Xelina could feel the heat of her lightsaber's blade as she brought it up to her neck, but she stopped. This couldn't be how it would all end.

And then there was a scream as a red shaft of energy seemed to grow out of one of the other women's hearts. The crimson needle suddenly vanished, letting another of Xelina's sisters fall to the ground, lifeless. There was a man standing there, his form somehow obscured by the Force. The nearest two sisters turned on him. One of them was thrown backwards on an arc of indigo fire. The other crumpled to the ground as the peculiar man's lightsaber separated her head from her body.

Using this distraction to her advantage, Xelina charged at the nearest of her four remaining sisters. Their lightsabers buzzed and vomited up sparks as they clashed. Xelina felt a fire building up within her arm, and fed her rage into it. Her hand felt as though it was being burned away as a pink gout of lightning exploded forth. It slammed into her sister's chest and lifted the woman into the air. She fell to the ground, impaling her upper back on a rather sharp looking rock.

Xelina turned to find another of her sisters running away from the battle, the massacre. Xelina reached out her hand, Force-grabbing her fleeing sister by the neck, and dragging the tiny young woman over to her. Xelina felt sick; it was her baby sister, Xentira. Her adorable little face was stricken with horror. Out of all her sisters, Xelina had loved her the most.

"Please, don't do this," the girl pleaded. "They made me do it."

"The Void they did!" Xelina spat.

"I'm sorry. I-" She never finished that sentence, for Xelina had plunged her lightsaber into her heart.

"I know," Xelina said, her voice fracturing. "I'm sorry, too." She bent down and kissed her baby sister's forehead. She stood up and turned toward the peculiar man who had saved her life. The Force flowed around and through him. Both the dark and the light. She had never felt something so... beautiful. The man's skin was red, and there were flaps of skin hanging from his chin like a beard of flesh. He stood over the corpse of the woman he'd thrown with his Force lightning, and behind him lay the body of another.

Xelina found that she was crying. All her sisters were dead.

* * *

 **The Red** Man stood silently as the red haired girl walked toward him. Tears flowed from her copper eyes. Though he had stopped feeling much of anything centuries ago, he'd have found it odd had she not been distraught. She looked around briefly, noting that the last of her sisters had been slain. She looked back at the Red Man, and he could feel how helpless and lost she felt. "You did what was necessary to survive," he told her. "There is no shame in that." he placed a firm, yet gentle hand on her shoulder. Showing just enough compassion for someone whose heart had just been broken seven times over, but not enough that she'd think it was acceptable to be weak.

The girl glanced back at her little sister's body. "She was running away," she said, barely able to get the words past the lump in her throat. "She didn't want to kill..."

"Someday she may have sought vengeance for the deaths of her sisters."

"I guess." The girl glanced around at the rest of her sisters, and then back at the Red Man. The poor thing was terrified. "If I stay here, the rest of my village will hunt me down. They'll kill me."

"You don't need to stay here," the Red Man told her. "Come with me. Be my apprentice, and I will give you a purpose." The girl seemed to be mulling it over. She looked back at her little sister's dead body, and then back at him. "You may take a couple minutes to say good bye to her."

He watched the girl run over to her sister. She gently scooped up her younger sister and held her tiny body against hers. "I'm so sorry, baby," she practically squeaked. She kissed her sister's forehead again. She carefully laid her sister's tiny body back on the ground, and closed her eyelids. Her legs trembled as she stood up. "I'm ready to leave this Force forsaken place," she said. "So you can take me... Where _are_ we going?"

"To a world called Typhon," the Red Man said.

"I've never heard of Typhon."

"It is a forgotten world, but also a beautiful world." he told her. "What is your name?"

"Xelina Djo."

"You may call me Scourge." He turned and began to walk out of the forest. He could feel Xelina following close behind. Some time later, the two entered a small clearing. Floating in the center was what resembled a giant eye, with what resembled the large, leathery wings of some great, flying mammal. The hull appeared to be made of some sort of red-brown stone.

"It's beautiful," Xelina remarked.

The wonder in the young woman's voice seemed to stir something deep within Scourge's dead soul. "This is a Sith Meditation Sphere. You may call him _Ship_."

"Hello... _Ship,_ " she said a bit awkwardly.

 _Hello, Xelina._

She could, yet also could not, hear his voice. This Meditation Sphere could _speak_. A seam appeared in the ship's hull and a ramp, somewhat resembling a great tongue, folded down. The material looked sharp, like volcanic rock. Xelina looked at Scourge's feet; he was wearing boots, but there was nothing on her feet. She walked up to the ramp, and reached out with her foot. She slowly lowered her toe, until it touched the boarding ramp. It was... spongy. It didn't make any sense. Xelina began to feel a sense of very mild, almost imperceptible, impatience, and decided to scramble up the ramp.

* * *

 **Xelina Djo** just sat there, in silence, beside Scourge. She couldn't believe that on the worst day of her life, it had been a man who had made things less unbearable. She felt a large, strong arm wrap itself around her shoulders. The arm felt strangely cold, like it was... dead. Before she could think more on it, Scourge was gently pulling her closer to him. After a brief hesitation, she rested her head against the left side of his chest. Where was his heartbeat? And his chest wasn't rising or falling at all. Xelina realized that she couldn't hear him breathing. His body was also cold, like his arm had been.

"You have questions," Scourge said.

"Yes," she said slowly, sitting up as he removed his arm from her shoulders.

"About three thousand five hundred years ago, I went through a dark side ritual which rendered me immortal. But it was not as I'd expected. The pain was excruciating, like being thrown into the fires of hell. And so I learned to numb myself. I can no longer feel textures or temperatures. I cannot feel the wind on my skin or the sun on my face. It hurt when I breathed. It hurt every time my hurt would beat, and ever time blood flowed through my veins. And it turns out that those things are not necessary when you're immortal."

Xelina was silent a moment. "It sounds more like... being... dead."

"In a way, it is," Scourge agreed. "You should rest. It will be a while longer before we reach Typhon."

* * *

 **There Xentira** stood, a fatal, cauterized wound where her heart should have been. Her adorable little face was stricken with horror. "Please, don't do this," the girl pleaded. "They made me do it."

"I'm sorry," Xelina sobbed.

Xentira's face twisted into an expression of rage and hatred. "'Sorry' won't bring me back. You murdered me," she said coldly. "I'm gone. Forever." And then Xentira was gone.

Xelina woke up sobbing. Her baby sister couldn't be gone, but she was. Forever.

"I'm sorry," Scourge said softly. Xelina could tell that it was unnatural for this Red Man to comfort someone, but she appreciated that he was making the effort.

"I miss her."

"What was her name?"

"Xentira. I've never loved anyone as much as I love her," Xelina said. "We would spend hours in the forest together. I held her when we slept. I can't believe she's gone."

Scourge placed a somewhat cold, yet comforting, hand over hers. "I will help you through this, Xelina."

"Thank you, Scourge." Xelina hadn't realized, until now, just how beautiful this Red Man's accent truly was. It had the precise annunciation and clipped syllables of an Imperial accent. But there was also a smooth, foreign element she hadn't heard before. "How much longer..." Xelina trailed off, speechless. She'd never felt anything so powerful and vibrant in the Force.

"Welcome to Typhon," Scourge said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Typhon**

The orb of Typhon was a beautiful maelstrom of both the dark and light sides of the Force. Both sides existed in harmony, though the dark was in domination over the light. Just like Scourge was, but on a much grander scale. Xelina could feel an exhilarating electricity in the air, the type one felt right before a thunderstorm, as the Meditation Sphere's boarding ramp made contact with the grassy ground.

The clouds were dark, almost black, but there was sunlight burning through. It glinted off the side of a massive structure that vaguely resembled a destroyer droid. It had three legs supporting a round, central hub. Finger-like structures protruded from the tops of the legs, almost meeting above the hub.

"What you see, off in the distance, is the temple of Anil Kesh," Scourge explained. The Red Man took her hand, as though to lead her to this structure. "It used to belong to an order which existed long before the Jedi. They called themselves the Je'daii, and tried to find balance between the two sides of the Force. The Je'daii were so close to the truth, but they failed to recognize that the dark side is supreme, and allowed the light to blind them.

"Typhon was attacked by a race called the Rakata. They were powerful in the dark side, but had refused to accept that the light side had its own value. As a result they were defeated. Many of the Je'daii 'learned' to fear the dark side, and thus rejected it as evil. This is how the Jedi eventually came into being." Xelina could feel a profound sadness in this man's soul. It caused him such pain to see how lost an order of such promise had become.

"Their fear of the dark side has made the Jedi weak, unwilling to do what is necessary," Scourge continued. "To them it is a sin to impose their will on the galaxy, and so chaos reins. But the Sith, also, are lost. Like the Rakata, they do not understand that it is possible to use the light without becoming corrupted.

"Without the light, one cannot fully understand the concept of true unity. For so many years the Sith Order was at war with itself, and made nearly ineffectual due to petty infighting. They killed each other for the sake of advancement. They had all become fools!

"And as though they were not foolish enough, one of them instituted the Rule of Two. Darth Bane was his name, and he had fallen victim to the delusion that a single pair of Sith could run the galaxy. A single blasted pair! He was, in a sense, the _bane_ of the Sith." He chuckled at his joke. "But about a century ago, I saw that they had begun to overcome this, when Darth Krayt instituted the One Sith. They discarded that detrimental Rule of Two. They had come to understand that many Sith were needed. And there was to be one master over all of them." Xelina had rarely heard, or felt, someone speak with such passion.

The conversation turned to less consequential things as they continued onward to Anil Kesh. Xelina soon began to feel a peculiar sort of interference. It grew ever stronger the closer the pair came. Her copper eyes widened in surprise when she saw that this ancient temple stood over an enormous hole in the ground. This was the source of the interference. "This is the Chasm," Scourge noted. "The Je'daii were so creative in naming things." Xelina was surprised to hear herself laughing.

"It seems like an awfully strange place for the Je'daii to build a temple," Xelina commented, as Scourge led her to the nearest foot of the Anil Kesh.

"The temple of Anil Kesh was largely devoted to the study of science. According to the logs I found, the Je'daii were studying the Chasm. Venturing into it was forbidden, because the interference you sense drove mad some of the people who went there. And oddly, the more powerful in the Force one is, the stronger the effect seems to be." The Red Man walked up to a pair of massive double doors and, after a surge of dark side energy, pushed them open.

Her mind feeling uncomfortably fuzzy, Xelina quietly followed Scourge into Anil Kesh. She found herself a bit surprised, as the two walked up a rather long series of stairs, by how many rooms seemed to be crammed into this 'leg' of the temple. "How many people lived in this place?"

Scourge shrugged. "I am not quit four thousand years old. Anil Kesh was constructed over thirty seven thousand years ago."

"It does feel quite ancient, now that you mention it," Xelina commented, as she and Scourge made it into the hub of the temple. Her red eyebrows furrowed upon finding that she could sense Scourge's presence in two places. He walked beside her, yet he also seemed to exist elsewhere in the temple. "Reach deeper,'" Scourge gently prompted, as the two approached a doorway.

Xelina did as instructed, and was puzzled to find that this other presence appeared to lack any sort of consciousness. The young woman's eyes widened in astonishment and mild horror as Scourge led her into the room. In the center sat... an amorphous mass of red flesh. Flaps of skin like those hanging from Scourge's chin adorned... whatever this thing was. A dozen or so red eyes moved about but gazed outward at nothing, as though they were blind. Whatever this strange thing was rested on several chitinous claws that appeared to be made out of a fingernail-like material. And there was something else attached to it. It resembled some sort of hand. Flesh stretched tightly over bone and tendons. Claws, like smaller versions of what this... creature rested upon, extended from six appendages. "What is that?" she asked, looking up at... her master.

"It is, in a sense, a part of me," Scourge responded. "I created it from my own flesh and bone. To what end I don't know. I learned of this sort of thing from the temple's archives. Many of the Je'daii had created things such as what you see before you. Though I highly doubt they managed to create anything quite like this. You find it disturbing."

"I do," the redhead confessed.

"As most people would. My many centuries of solitude have made me a bit... eccentric," Scourge explained.

Xelina walked over to the giant 'hand'. It was big enough for a person to stand in. She cautiously touched one of the fingers. And jumped back, somewhat startled, as it bent at one of its joints. She heard Scourge chuckling.

"That is called the Embrace of Pain," Scourge said.

Xelina frowned. "That sounds very unpleasant."

"For most beings it is, though it has no effect on me. I have experienced pain on the order of magnitudes worse than anything the Embrace can inflict."

Xelina had a sinking feeling inside, and nervously backed away from the creature. "You aren't going to make me use that thing, I hope."

"Make you? No. But I would recommend it."

"And what would be the purpose?" she asked slowly.

Scourge smiled somewhat dementedly. "The purpose would be to discover the purpose."

Xelina could not help but roll her eyes. She looked at Scourge's torture device and sighed.

"I will be there to comfort you after it is over," the Red Man promised.

"Alright," Xelina said nervously. She walked over to the Embrace of Pain, and stepped into the contraption. She put her arms above her head, allowing a chitinous claw to clamp down tightly upon each of her wrists. The four remaining claws closed around her upper and lower legs. The 'hand' suddenly flexed, arching her back to a very uncomfortable extent. It began pulling on her limbs. It was quite painful, but she had a very high... She suddenly screamed as the Embrace jerked violently. It tightened, and then jerked again. Xelina tried to grab hold of the Force, but encountered a seemingly impenetrable wall. She wanted to stop, but she didn't want to disappoint her master. She kept screaming, for what seemed like... a very long time.

The claws finally released Xelina. She tumbled forward, barely managing to catch herself on all fours, so that her head didn't slam into the floor. She fell onto her side, and started sobbing. She tried to sit up, but she was too weak. And so she just lay there, her light brown skin soaked with sweat.

* * *

 **Scourge found** the sound of Xelina's screaming to be quite... disruptive. The Red Man was surprised at this; had all his time alone truly made him so easily distracted? He was a bit annoyed with himself for telling the girl that she didn't have to do this, and then manipulating her into doing just that. He was tempted to stop the Embrace's work and tell this young woman that she didn't have to endure this suffering. Because the screaming was so annoying. But no, she had to pass through this fire. She needed to learn the purpose of pain for herself. It just wouldn't be enough to simply hear it from someone else.

The screaming eventually stopped, and was replaced by sobbing. Scourge would have sighed with relief, had he remembered how to breathe, after hundreds of years of not doing it. The Red Man allowed his apprentice to sense him in the Force again, and rushed over to Xelina. "I'm so sorry," he said, putting a touch of guilt into his voice. "If you don't want to do this again-"

"I don't _want_ to," Xelina interrupted. "But you recommended it, so it's important."

* * *

 **Xelina knew** what to expect from the Embrace of Pain this time, and braced herself for it. She began to whimper as the cursed thing jerked back and forth. She bit down on her tongue, down on a scream which threatened to loose itself from her agony. Beads of sweat wept down from her pores. It stung her eyes, causing them to water.

Xelina tightened her teeth's grip on her tongue, and was about to start screaming when the Embrace let her go. She fell to her hands and knees. She tried to stand up, but she was too exhausted. Xelina settled for just sitting. She was starting to understand the purpose of this exercise; to endure pain. Alone, without the Force. Yet she knew there was more to it.

Scourge placed an arm around Xelina's shoulders, finding them damp with sweat. Damp? He'd seen the beads of sweat on her skin, so of course it would be damp. But no, that wasn't it. He experimentally stroked her hair; it was... soft. The Red Man could feel textures, and yet he did not feel the fires of hell slicing through his body.

This should not have been possible, and yet it was happening. It had to have something to do with Xelina. She was very attractive. But Scourge had been around attractive women after becoming immortal, and this had never happened. Perhaps he had some sort of infatuation with Xelina that he wasn't fully aware of? He was intrigued to find out what transpired as he spent more time with her. Scourge drew Xelina into his embrace, and kissed her sweat-soaked forehead. The girl already owed him her life, but to have true loyalty she needed to believe he loved her.

* * *

 **Xelina looked** defiantly at her adversary, the Embrace of Pain. She stepped into it, and allowed it to clamp onto her. Xelina longed to be done with this Void vaping exercise. Longed to understand the point of it. It made her angry, and she wanted to fight back. As her pain increased, so did her rage. She screamed, feeding her rage into the Force. Breaking through that Force forsaken wall of interference. An unseen darkness fell upon her, filling her. It exploded from her fingertips as pink lightning. Xelina focused her anger upon the claws imprisoning her, and they were viciously torn open.

Xelina stumbled forward, but used the Force to steady herself. She turned, trembling a bit, to face her tormentor. She lifted her hands toward it, letting arcs of pink fire fall upon it. Xelina could see the red skin darkening, and could smell burning flesh. She clenched one of her fists; there was a cracking sound as bones broke, and the Embrace was crushed.

Xelina turned her attention to the rest of her master's creation. She forced herself to lower her hands; her rage had freed her, but she refused to be its slave. She felt Scourge approaching from behind, and found him with a rather proud smile on his face. "Through your rage and pain, you have gained strength. Through this strength, you have gained power. Through this power, you have gained victory. Through victory, your chains have been broken. The Force has set you free."


End file.
